OWP liVe REPORT

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How to create a seamless customer experience in new retail

S T R AT E G Y

New retail is taking omni-channel to the next level for retailers. In this OWP liVe session, the purpose was to help retailers think beyond basic omni-channel such as click and collect, and build the capabilities for creating a seamless customer experience across channels, said Stéphane JG Girod. The global COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically shifted the retail landscape, accelerating the breakthrough of digital commerce, even in sectors where it was lagging, such as fresh grocery and luxury goods. in live-streaming (a good example is the new Hublot Digital Store), social media and social commerce are also gaining prominence, consider, for example, the new community that NTWRK orchestrates on its mobile app. These innovations are forcing many retailers to rethink the balance between digital and physical retail as well as where else they may find new sources of growth, Professor Girod explained. In digital commerce, the number of channels is exploding. Lot’s of innovation is going on

Within this context, retailers need to build new capabilities and operating models to deliver the “everywhere-anywhere- anytime” shopping experience. The key success factor is the ability to create a seamless customer experience across channels. This requires that retailers embrace more agile ways of working, and cultural and digital transformation. A study published by Harvard Business Review three years ago of 46,000 shoppers at a US retail chain, highlighted that 7% were online shoppers, 20% were physical retail only, however a staggering 73% were omni-channel shoppers.

The same study found that omni-channel consumers spend on average 4% more on every shopping occasion in store, and 10% more online than single-channel customers. Customers who conducted online searches on a retailer’s website led to a 13% increase in in-store spending, and increased loyalty among customers. So the question is no longer why companies should embrace new retail, but how they can implement it successfully and make their customer experience better. In 2016, Alibaba founder Jack Ma coined the term “New Retail” to describe how the blending of online and offline commerce, through the digitalization of the entire value chain and the centrality of data analytics was creating a new version of retail, a concept that is not only reshaping how the customer shops today but also how brands are responding to it. Focus on improving customer experience

STÉPHANE JG GIROD Professor of Strategy and Organizational Innovation

omni-channel shoppers 73%

Simply put, new retail is about being able to get the right products to the right